China's rapid uptake of mobile payments forcing businesses to adapt

April 7th, 2017; Australian Financial Review

China is increasingly becoming a cashless country, where thieves are frustrating about their unworthy risk of robbing cashiers for poor amount of cash. Giants such as Tencent and Alibaba are battling for the market share of the mobile payment, and retailers both domestic and overseas are adapting to the big change.

"Ant Financial, the parent company of Alipay, is the most powerful new financial services brand in China," said Don Zhao, the co-founder of Azoya, an e-commerce solutions and operations company that helps foreign brands enter China.

He notes the Ant Financial ecosystem is much broader than that of Tencent and includes virtual credit cards, investment products, credit rating services and personal loans.

"It's brand is more established and trusted than Tencent," he said.

That said it's hard to ignore the rise of WeChat in online payments.

Data compiled by Azoya from the 12 Chinese websites it manages shows WeChat Pay accounted for 24 per cent of all transactions by value during the week ending March 31, after it was added as a payments options just six months earlier.

Alipay accounted for 72 per cent of transactions with the state-backed UnionPay, which holds a monopoly on credit card payments in China, making up the remainder over the same period.

But Zhao said WeChat's market share had been as high as 40 per cent on some days, when promotions have been running.

"There's no doubt it is challenging the dominant position of Alipay," said Zhao.

This section is taken from the AFR report China's rapid uptake of mobile payment is forcing businesses to adapt. Click to read original article.